Litany: Music News Covering Skinny Puppy, Download, ohGr and Related Projects

I arrived in LA today and spent most of the afternoon sorting through the merch for the upcoming tour (followed up the necessary stop at In-N-Out burger). The Undeveloped artwork looks mighty fine emblazoned on cotton.

The band wants to put out the word that, where the venues allow, not only are they happy with fans making bootleg audio recordings of the show, but are actively welcoming it. After all is said and done, they plan on providing a place for you to submit your documents of the tour for potential usage in an upcoming, band-produced live DVD of the tour. While they cannot do anything about the cities where the venues themselves will not allow recording, the band themselves are not discouraging any surreptitious recording devices that might find their way into the vicinity taped to someone's nether regions.

In honor of black Friday the store at skinnypuppy.com will be temporarily reducing all merchandise to half price. Yes, you can get t-shirts and hoodies for 50% starting at midnight after your (American) Thanksgiving.

Visit here to browse the items.

Announcing a special offer for the ohGr tour allowing the hardcore fans to upgrade their ticket to a VIP experience package, including:::

-a meet and greet with Ogre

-access to the band's soundcheck

-a VIP laminate

-a signed 18"x24" tour poster, exclusive to this offer

-entry into a drawing to win the one-of-a-kind Tree of No Cares head prop unpainted test pull from the now legendary Last Rights tour

ohGr and Puppy usually have closed soundchecks, so this access allows fans a peak behind the curtain at what they normally do not get to witness. Truth be told, soundchecks remain some of my favorite moments from touring. And as anyone who has seen my Last Rights tour page (designed back decidedly before web 2.0, not to mention before I knew how to write) knows, the chance to own one of these prop casts is something worth the sale of a soul and/or grandma.

Click here for more information or to purchase this ticket upgrade, after all, you could win this:::

Puppy and Download collectors will want to check out Subcon's new Ebay Store, where cEvin is auctioning some of his own collection of vintage t-shirts and vinyl from across the history of the bands. He's even got an Images in Vogue shirt up there!

Browse through the selection here.

What with the arrival of the first new Skinny Puppy album in four years, an ohGr record only a summer old, and an ohGr tour on the way, it would be easy to overlook some of the other great music being released. Collide's new record, Counting to Zero, sees the duo further augmenting their electronic sound with live instrumentation. Rather than any sense of sub-WaxTrax! dancefloor nostalgia, Collide have embraced the snaky grooves of glam and shimmering colors of shoegaze. Live guitar and bass, including guest Dean Garcia of Curve, are woven with Statik's programming, well known from work on albums by Tool, Prince and, of course, Skinny Puppy, for a result not unlike a forgotten sibling of ohGr's most industrial-glam moments. kArin's voice has never sounded fuller and has taken a central place in the mix. "Slow Down" fuses almost-Pink Floydian guitar with shimmering electronics. The seductive "Lucky 13" could be by Siouxsie and the Spiders From Mars. The smoky ballad "Human" evokes Bauhaus as if produced by Brian Eno, while "Tears Like Rain" is reminiscent of the best aspects of Greater Wrong of the Right. Think Cocteau Twins with teeth or a slicker, groovier My Bloody Valentine wrapping itself around an electronic core. Vibrant and current, this record reignites an aspect of dark rock that has lain dormant for far too many years. If you yearn for an era when 120 Minutes was a weekly appointment or had the soundtrack for the Crow on repeat, this is the record you've been waiting for.

Visit their website here.

HanDover has debuted at #168 on this week's Billboard Top 200.

Visit our forum to join in on the discussion about the record right here and vote for your favorite track on the album here (thanks to forumite Alien8 for setting up the poll).

As we collectively bask in the radiant glory that is the rare moment following a new Skinny Puppy album, let us not forget that ohGr is set to hit the west coast in support of Undeveloped in less than a month. Visit our Western Fallout forum section for tour meetup information. I'll be on the tour helping with merch and stage stuff, so I'm looking forward to meeting more Litany people.